


Bring Us Back

by thegeekgene



Series: Wash It Out [5]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: College AU, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-22
Updated: 2015-06-22
Packaged: 2018-04-05 16:40:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4187193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegeekgene/pseuds/thegeekgene
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tavros and Karkat visit Aradia and Sollux, after an emotional morning. It goes well until it doesn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bring Us Back

After that kind of morning, it’s inevitable they stay in. The idea of facing a Saturday on campus -- open and active and so normal, unconcerned with destiny that runs beneath the skin -- is surreal and terrifying to Tavros and he thinks Karkat feels the same way.

They hang around his room, kissing sometimes, more often just holding each other and watching Disney movies. The Princess and the Frog, Peter Pan, and Snow White. They consider Mulan but ultimately saving China is too apt for comfort.

They pull out Tavros’s contraband electric kettle and eat ramen when their stomachs complain and Karkat finds a pair of pants that more or less fit. They’re too long but he rolls them and uses safety pins to hold them in place. Who cares about fashion?

Around noon, Tavros gets a troll from Aradia.

AA: are you coming over tonight?  
AA: or are you busy with your new flushbuddy? we won’t hold it against you if you are!  
AT: rEALLY,  
AA: okay, sollux will, but don’t worry about him, he’s ridiculous.  
AA: i’m about to go to the grocery store and i need to know what i’m getting. so, dinner for two or three?  
AT: fOUR, aCTUALLY, iF THAT’S OKAY, i’M BRINGING KARKAT WITH ME,  
AA: my, my, bringing the boyfriend to pale night. things are serious.  
AT: iS THAT NOT OKAY,  
AT: hE CAN’T REALLY, uH, gO BACK TO HIS ROOM, rIGHT NOW,  
AA: it’s fine, i’m just teasing :D  
AA: is cajun fish okay with you two? i’ve got a coupon!  
AT: kARKAT SAYS, yES, aND ALSO, tO MAKE HIS REALLY SPICY,  
AT: aND YOU KNOW IT’S OKAY WITH ME, }:)  
AA: excellent! are you baking for us? tell me what ingredients to get.  
AT: oKAY, i JUST E-MAILED YOU, tHE RECIPE,  
AT: aND GET CREAM CHEESE, aND POWDERED SUGAR, fOR THE ICING,  
AA: going all out for this one, aren’t you? you must really want into his pants if you’re breaking out the cream cheese icing.  
AT: iT’S MORE AN APOLOGY, fOR WHAT HAPPENED WHEN I GOT INTO HIS PANTS,  
AA: haha, your bulge is too big, isn’t it?  
AT: hOW DID YOU, uH, KNOW THAT?  
AA: it happened with jade, too!  
AT: wHEN DID I TELL YOU THAT??  
AA: you were really drunk at the time :)  
AT: oH, gOD,  
AT: pLEASE DON’T TELL KARKAT, tHAT YOU KNOW,  
AA: i’m your moirail, sweetie. why wouldn’t i know?  
AT: jUST DON’T, oKAY, hE’S ALREADY AND STRESSED AND I DON’T WANT TO EMBARRASS HIM, uH, mORE THAN NECESSARY,  
AA: okay, fine. my lips are sealed on the topic of your enormous bulge.  
AT: iT’S NOT ENORMOUS JUST, uH, tHICKER THAN AVERAGE,  
AT: aLSO, tHANK YOU, i APPRECIATE IT, }:)

They head for the apartment around four. It’s a twenty minute walk and, halfway through, Tavros holds out his hand. Karkat takes is and Tavros can’t stop smiling.

Aradia welcomes them both a hug, which seems to weird Karkat out a bit. He returns it stiffly, with the look of someone who doesn’t want to risk displeasing a dictator, and steps back in a hurry when she lets go.

Sollux waits until the hugging is over to deliver his own greeting.

“Hey, KK, how’d you do with Tavros’s monster bulge. Let me see your fuck limp.”

“Oh my god,” Karkat says and rounds on Tavros, who holds up his hands in surrender. “What the fuck have you been telling them?”

“Nothing!” Tavros says. “I didn’t tell Sollux anything!”

“Did you tell Aradia?”

“No!” Tavros squirms a little and crumbles. “She, uh, guessed?”

“You,” Karkat says, “are never touching my nook again.”

Sollux and Aradia burst out laughing.

“Holy fuck,” Sollux says, through wheezing giggles. “Look more horrified, TV, I don’t think we get the extent of your anguish.”

Tavros attempts to control his expression. It doesn’t work and Karkat buries his face in his hands.

“Oh, dear,” Aradia says. “You just look so -- forlorn. Like your dog got run over.”

“Can we not compare to my genitals to roadkill?” Karkat says. Then, apparently to himself, “This is a such a disaster. We’ve been here for two fucking minutes and it’s already a disaster. Why the fuck did I agree to this? What’s wrong with me?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sollux says. “This isn’t a disaster, it’s great!”

“Fuck you with a pile of wrenches,” Karkat snaps. “No, wait, scratch that. Fuck you with all the wrenches, every wrench in existence on this terrible fucking planet, let’s line them up and cram them up your disgusting nook!”

“Oh, KK, I never knew you felt that way. Shall we send Tavros and AA out so we can have some alone time?”

Karkat growls and Tavros manages to grab him from behind before he lunges.

“Okay,” he says. “As amusing and also, uh, mortifying as this is, I’d really appreciate it if my moirail and my matesprite didn’t maim each other. It would be pretty great if that were, uh, a thing that didn’t happen.” Karkat keeps growling, probably because Sollux’s horns are sparking in obvious threat display. Exasperated, he adds, “Also, flipping ashen on you two is a thing I don’t want to happen. So please, uh, stop?”

Karkat stops growling immediately. Sollux’s sparks die down after a few seconds.

“Sorry, TV,” he says.

Cautiously, Tavros releases Karkat and looks at his face. He’s blushing, a little, and the difference between his color and Aradia’s is so obvious Tavros feels stupid for not realizing before. He wants to say something about it but pushes the urge away. It’s Karkat’s secret, not his.

Instead, he looks to Aradia, watching them all with fond amusement.

“Did you get all my ingredients?” he asks.

“I did indeed,” she says. “The fish is thawing, so why don’t you get started on the cake? We can cook and eat while it’s in to bake.”

“Okay, sure.” He takes a couple of steps toward the kitchen then looks back at Karkat and Sollux, a question in his mind.

“We’ll behave,” Sollux says, before he’s managed to put it into words.

“Yeah,” Karkat agrees. “I can survive his company while you do your Martha Stewart thing.”

“We’ll play video games or something,” adds Sollux.

“Somehow,” says Tavros, “that doesn’t make me feel any better.”

Karkat sighs, then steps over to kiss him. It’s a surprise, but a nice one. He hadn’t been sure Karkat would be okay with showing affection around other people. Aradia wolf whistles.

Ignoring her, Karkat says, “Just go, you ridiculous disaster. Sollux is one of my best friends.”

The reminder puts his mind at ease and Tavros smiles at him -- beams really, he probably looks like a moron -- and goes to the kitchen.

Aradia’s already set the necessary and cream cheese out to soften so he get to work pulling out the rest of the ingredients from the shopping bags on the table and the necessary bowls and measuring spoons from their drawers. He is, he knows, more familiar with the kitchen than Sollux, who lives here. He’s pulling the electric miser from the cupboard under the microwave when Aradia comes in and sits at the table.

“They’re playing Never Alone,” she says. “I thought co-op might be safer.”

“Or more dangerous,” Tavros says. He begins measuring out flour. “That’s the one about the Inuit girl, right?”

“That’s it. I bought it a couple weeks ago. Sollux really likes it.”

“I didn’t know it had, uh, explosions.”

“It doesn’t. He likes it anyway.”

“Wow. It must be, uh, really good, then.”

Aradia hums agreement then says, “I notice Karkat’s a brownblood, today.”

“Huh?” Tavros realizes belatedly what she means. “Oh, uh, yeah. He’s not, I mean, he just, uh, borrowed some of my clothes?” The brown flannel shirt is, he supposed, a little obvious.

“And what were you doing that made his unwearable?” she asks.

“It’s not like that,” Tavros says. “I mean, it sort of is, but, uh, not really? He was wearing, uh, Kanaya’s clothes, when he came over and, uh, didn’t want to wander around in a skirt.”

“A skirt?” she sounds intrigued.

“Kanaya’s pants wouldn’t fit him.”

“And what were he and Kanaya doing that made his clothes unwearable?”

“It’s not like that!” Tavros says, again. “It’s, uh, complicated?”

She laughs.

“I can see that. How did the skirt look?”

Tavros gives it some thought.

“Pretty nice,” he decides. “But he was, uh wearing this tank top, too. That was better. He has, uh, nice arms.” His face feels a little warm and he’s glad he’s facing away.

“I see,” Aradia says. “No, on the subject of ‘it sort of is’ like that.”

“Ugh,” Tavros says. “If I tell you we pailed, do I get to ask about your sex life?”

“Most definitely,” she says. “I’ve even got something to tell.”

This promise renders Tavros more than willing to talk and he tells Aradia what she wants to know. When he’s finished, and very brown, he says, “Now, it’s your turn. Who do I need to, uh, threaten with bear attacks?”

She says, “Terezi.”

Tavros takes a moment to digest this news. He knows Terezi mostly through Sollux. Their paths don’t cross much, with him in bio and her in pre-law, and he’s not sure he’s ever spoken with her one on one.

“Huh,” he says. “That’s unfortunate, because I don’t think, uh, bear attacks will impress her all that much. She’ll probably just sue the bears.”

“Probably,” Aradia says. She sounds fond.

“So,” says Tavros. “How did that happen?”

“I went hiking, yesterday,” she says. “I saw her in a tree about a mile up the trail and she seemed to be having fun so I flew up to see what she was doing. Turns out she’d found this really cool bug.”

“How did she do that? Isn’t she, uh, blind?”

“She smelled it,” Aradia says, as if this is a thing that makes perfect sense. Tavros accepts and she goes on. “And I guess it smelled really good because she ate it.”

“That sounds, kind of dangerous,” Tavros says, wrinkling his nose at the thought. “What if it was poisonous. Or something.”

“Oh, she would have smelled that. So, I flew her down from the tree and we went looking for more bugs and ended up making out. It was pretty great.”

“Oh.” Tavros is not at all sure that making out with someone who’s just been eating bugs sounds ‘great’ but he’s not Aradia. “Are you going to, uh, see her again?”

“Uh-huh,” Aradia says. “We’re getting together tomorrow afternoon. I’m going to take her into that big culvert up by the pond. There are some super cool frogs up there, and it’s not far from the cemetery.” The cemetery is Aradia’s favorite hang out on campus.

“Oh. Well. I hope you have fun?” He mostly hopes they shower thoroughly before they get to the pailing.

“Next weekend we might try and track down the lost subway system,” Aradia continues, oblivious or uncaring of his obvious dubiety. “Did you know there used to be one under the city? They shut it down because the ghosts of the workmen who died during the construction kept disrupting service.”

“I’m pretty sure that that’s, uh, an urban legend,” he says. “But looking for it sounds fun.”

“It will be,” Aradia says. “I’m really looking forward to meeting the ghosts.”

Tavros still finds her spooky ghost powers a little unsettling so he redirects the conversation.

“Didn’t Terezi date Karkat?” he says. “When was that?”

“Freshman year. She says he’s delicious but kind of needy. He cried when they broke up.”

“Oh. Uh. That is more information than I was actually looking for. By, uh, kind of a lot. But. Uh. Thanks?”

“You’re welcome,” says Aradia.

 

They end up staying so late with Sollux and Aradia there’s kind of no point in going back to campus to sleep so, around two AM, Aradia kicks the futon into sleepable shape for them and offers them pillows from her nest of a bed. They strip down to boxers and t-shirts, after she’s closed away in her room, and lay down together in the comfortable dimness of the living room. There’s a party going on somewhere else in the apartment complex but it’s winding down so the noise isn’t too bad. Sollux’s keyboard is somehow louder, through the closed bedroom door.

They start out lying side by side but Karkat soon makes a sound of irritation and rolls over. He shoves at Tavros’s arm until he extends it and cuddles up against his chest, just as he did when the single dorm bed put space at a premium. It seems Tavros has himself a cuddler. He kisses the top of his head and decides he definitely on board.

They fall asleep like that, only to wake blurry and confused an hour later to Karkat’s cell phone. Karkat rolls around, flailing for it, and Tavros hears him answer with a sound that gives the impression of profanity, though it lacks any recognizable form.

And then, “Gamzee? What? What the fuck do you -- I’m in bed, asslicker, where the fuck else would I be?” There’s a pause. He hisses through the darkness and coughs, then sits up on his knees, back to Tavros. “That’s none of your business,” he says. “I broke up with you, remember? Think hard, I’m sure even your addled brain can -- ” He stops and is quiet for a long moment. Tavros can see his shoulders tightening and hunching and he levers himself up.

“Stop that,” Karkat snaps, suddenly. “You had your chance and -- ” Tavros reaches out and touches his shoulder, prompting a loud curse. “He’s awake,” he says and then, over his shoulder, “Fuck, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Tavros assures him, and slips an arm around his waist. He does it slowly, in case it’s not what he wants, but Karkat leans gratefully into the embrace and clutches Tavros’s hand, even as he starts talking again.

“No, not that it’s any of your business,” Karkat says. “I dumped you. We’re over. Where I spend the night is none of your fucking business and neither are my quadrants.” He pauses, listening, then says, “I’m moving out. As soon as res life calls, I am out of there. Oh, you know what else? Fuck you. Just fuck you.” And he hangs up.

The ringing silence lasts only seconds before the ringtone starts up again. Karkat fumbles with the phone in the darkness and it goes quiet, though the screen still glows with an incoming call. Tavros tightens his arm around his waist and doesn’t say a word.

After a moment, Aradia’s door opens. She steps into the living room on slippered feet and regards them in silence -- Karkat silently shaking, maybe crying, Tavros wrapped around him from behind -- then goes to the kitchen. Tavros hears water running, then the click and flare of the gas stove. She sticks her head back around the door and says, “Lavender or chamomile?”

They end up sitting together at the kitchen table as Aradia, in her plush red robe, hair in a thick braid down her back, makes tea. Karkat holds Tavros’s hand tight and when Tavros says, “Can I -- uh -- Can I -- ?” he nods, agreeing to the incoherence.

Tavros looks at Aradia, carefully focused on measuring out tea leaves, and says, “Karkat broke up with his moirail. Kind of dramatically. That’s why he was, uh, with me, last night. And it, uh, looks like Gamzee’s not taking it well?”

“I wouldn’t imagine he would,” Aradia says. “He was in a film class with me, last semester. He talked a lot about the miracle of serendipity. Sollux always says trolls who rely too much on serendipity for their quadrants probably aren’t doing much of the work themselves.”

“That shows more sense than I would have expected of Captor,” Karkat says. And then, as if realizing he’s talking to Sollux’s moirails, says, “Sorry.”

Tavros squeezes his hand and offers a smile.

“That’s fine,” Aradia says. “There aren’t many things Sollux cares enough for to be sensible about. His quadrants are one of them.”

“As well they should be,” Karkat says. “I wish Gamzee had that kind of sense.” There’s envy in his voice, thick and black, and Tavros feels another stab of pity.

“There’s no point in thinking that way now,” Aradia says, and the kettle begins to whistle. As she pours hot water into three mugs, she continues, “Gamzee made his bed and now he had to lie in it. And you’re done dealing with his shit.”

“God, I hope so,” Karkat says. “But I’ve still got to move out, assuming res life ever fucking calls me back.”

“They will,” Aradia says. “And then you’ll be done with him and you’ll never have to deal with him again.”

“I’ll go with you,” Tavros says. “When you, uh, move out, I mean. So you won’t be alone.”

“No,” Karkat says. “I refuse to put you through that. I don’t want to put anyone through that, but with your history with him and that creepy infatuation of his? Just, no,”

Tavros opens his mouth to protest but Aradia beats him.

“Then I’ll go,” she says. “Me and Sollux.” She floats the mugs through the air to them, smiling gently. “Two telekinetics will make the job much easier.” When Karkat just eyes her, openly skeptical, she smiles wider. “You can buy us dinner, after, if it makes you feel less indebted.”

Karkat looks down at his mug and Tavros sees a faint flare of red in his cheeks.

“Uh, thanks,” Karkat says. “That would be -- I would appreciate that.”

“And I would appreciate Simply Troll,” she says.

“If they’re helping,” says Tavros, “can’t I come, too? It would be less weird and, uh, obvious, if all three of us came.”

Aradia’s smile takes on an amused edge. Karkat sighs.

“Look, Tavros,” he says, “I get that it goes against the core of your very being to not be helpful, but I promise you it’s better if you stay behind. Gamzee was really, really into you. I have no idea if he’s over that and if he’s not -- I don’t know. I don’t know what might happen and I’d honestly prefer not to find out. Look,” he says, and tugs Tavros’s hand. “You can hang out in my new room and help put shit away. Does that make you feel any better?”

Tavros offers him a shy smile.

“Uh, yes?” he says and Karkat smiles ruefully back.

“You’re ridiculous,” he says.

“But you seem to like it, so, I don’t, uh, see that as a problem?”

Karkat huffs.

“Totally ridiculous,” he says and Tavros leans in to kiss his cheek; then, in a fit of whimsy, blows a raspberry into it.

Karkat sputters and shoves him away while Aradia laughs.

“What the hell was that?” Karkat demands, but he’s smiling like he can’t help it.

“A kiss?” Tavros says.

“Fuck you, that was not a kiss. Aradia, did you see that shit?”

“I saw a kiss,” Aradia says, in her best serious voice. “It was very loving.”

Quickly and gently, Tavros pecks his cheek.

“See?” she says. “Like that.”

Karkat shoves Tavros again, then grabs his hand.

“Ridiculous,” he says. “Both of you.”

But he’s still smiling, so everything is really fine.


End file.
